THE DIVINE SERVICES

A central part of Christian Life is our Liturgical Prayer. Liturgy and Worship are existential constituents in human beings. Worship
is the natural human response to any kind of encounter with the Divine
encounter. "While He [the Risen Christ] was blessing them, He left them and was
taken up into heaven. Then they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem
with great joy. And they stayed continually at the temple, praising God."

(Luke 24: 51-53)

"Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let
us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for
our God is a consuming fire."

(Hebrews 12:28-29)

The Orthodox Liturgical Tradition

“Liturgical prayer in the East shows a great aptitude for involving the
human person in his or her totality: the mystery is sung in the loftiness of
its content, but also in the warmth of the sentiments it awakens in the heart
of redeemed humanity.

In the sacred act, even bodiliness is summoned to praise, and beauty,
which in the East is one of the best loved names expressing the divine
harmony and the model of humanity transfigured, appears everywhere: in
the shape of the church, in the sounds, in the colours, in the lights,
in the scents.

The lengthy duration of the celebrations, the repeated invocations everything
expresses gradual identification with the mystery celebrated with one's
whole person. Thus the prayer of the Church already becomes participation
in the heavenly liturgy, an anticipation of the final beatitude."

Our worship not only helps to unite us with God, but it in itself proclaims
the Gospel - as the old Latin adage says: "lex orandi - lex credendi",
meaning both "how we pray is how we believe", i.e. the manner of our
worship shows what our Faith is.

The term "Orthodox" literally means "right - glory". This means both: correct
worship and correct belief. Indeed the very foundation and establishment of our Church, our Church's "conversion
story" is based on our finding God through our experience of liturgical
worship. We chose to follow the Christ because we found, as we found
nowhere else, the presence of God in the Divine Services as celebrated
at Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. (Cf. the story of Prince Volodymyr's
Conversion) And it is from missionaries from our mother Church of Constantinople-New
Rome that we have received the sacred Orthodox Tradition and spirituality.

Thus the Orthodox Tradition, in its fullness, especially the Orthodox
liturgical Tradition is our patrimony and the idiom of our Faith. This is the Tradition we have been given by God for our salvation. This is the Tradition we have "inherited from the Apostles through the Fathers"

Orthodoxy in the Catholic Communion

The Ecumenical Council of Vatican II calls us back to our Orthodox Tradition. The Council specifies that..in the rites and disciplines..whenever
they have fallen short, they are to strive to return to their ancestral
traditions.

(Canon Law, Instructions, art. 12)

Thus at our parish, in obedience to the Church, we do our best to be faithful
to our Orthodox Tradition, both in Liturgics and in Faith.The Articles of Union between our Churches and the Church of Rome are
quite explicit: that the divine worship and all prayers and services of Orthros, Vespers,
and the night services shall remain intact (without any change at all)
for us according to the ancient custom of the Eastern Church..

(Brest-Litovsk, art. 2)

Canon Law makes clear the Mandate from the Apostolic See:

“The firm attitude held by the Apostolic See.. asking the Eastern Churches
in full communion with it to have the courage to rediscover the authentic traditions of their own identity, restoring the original purity where necessary..the practice of the Orthodox should be taken into account, knowing
it, respecting it and distancing from it as little as possible so as
not to increase the existing separation, but rather intensifying efforts
in view of eventual adaptations, maturing and working together.

(Congregation for Eastern Churches:
Instructions for the Application of the Liturgical Prescriptions of the
Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches. art. 21)

The Mission of the Eastern Churches

One of the most central reasons the Church commands us to be scrupulously
obeservant of our Orthodox Tradition, is the Mission which the Church
has entrusted to our Churches, that of reconciliation with our Orthodox
Mother Churches and the re-establishment of sacred Communion with them.

Everyone should realize that it is of supereme importanancet to..perserve
and foster the rich liturgical and spiritual heritage of the Eastern
Churches in order faithfully to perserve the fullness of Christian tradition,
and to bring about reconciliation between Eastern and Western Christians"

(Vatican II, Unitatis Redintegratio, 15)

Through Worship and Beauty, is found the True God. Volodymyr, Great Prince of Rus, sent out emissaries to find the true faith.
They went east and west, north and south and found no faith, ..until
they arrived in Constantinople.
They returned to Kyiv and reported to the Prince what happened there in the
great Cathedral of Holy Wisdom:

"They took us where they worshipped their God, and we did not know whether
we were in heaven or upon earth, for there is not upon earth such sight
or beauty. This much we do know, that there, God lives among men, and we can never
forget that beauty.."

Contact Saint Elias

Other products and services from Saint Elias

The Norm of the Church is that all the Faithful should be present, not just at Sunday morning Liturgy, but at all the Divine Services of the Resurrection.
Just as it's precursor was the first Prayer Service of the Sabbath, so also is Great Vespers the 1st service of the Lord's Day.
At the very least, in addition to Divine Liturgy, one should attend either Vespers or Matins.

The second Service on Great Thursday is the Service of the 12 Gospels - wherein the Passion of the Lord is commemorated by reading the 2 pericopes in the Gospel that describe the Passion suffered by the Messiah.
By descending into death, O Life Immortal, You destroyed hell's power by the brilliance of your Divinity and raised the dead from their deep sleep.